Parents

Draw Your Future is a self-exploration and future planning program, designed to provide a place for youth in grades 7-12 to come together, explore—both individually and in groups—themselves and their beliefs, experiment with personal means of expression, and look toward creating and taking responsibility for their future.

Participants in this program are encouraged to come to the center during after-school hours and utilize the space’s resources according to their own initiative and direction. Adult advisors/artists/mentors may be invited to come share the space during these hours from time to time as resources and/or companions, occasionally offering workshops if interest demands. This afterschool time is intentionally unstructured and student-directed

Participants are also asked to participate in a once-weekly in a student-led reflective discussion. Discussion topics, chosen each week collaboratively by Draw Your Future advisors and student leaders, will follow a loose curriculum designed to:

• build students’ awareness of their community and environment
• increase self-knowledge and understanding
• create community and support among the participants
• illuminate the connection between personal expression and learning
• develop awareness of personal skills and interests and how these relate to future goals

Discussions will be facilitated by Purple Crayon staff as well as student leaders, and will start in a large group, break into smaller groups for deeper exploration, and come back to the large group to report and discuss.

Additionally, participants in this program will receive at least one monthly session of grade-appropriate college, career, or future counseling from the Purple Crayon staff or director.

Read more about the philosophy behind the Draw Your Future program.

Program Information:

Draw Your Future discussions will be held Friday and/or Sunday evenings from 7-9. Each week the leadership group meets with an advisor midweek to review the topic and refine questions for small group activities and discuss any issues or problems that have come up within the group.

Annual fee of $500 includes:

• unlimited use of space during Draw Your Future drop-in hours (weekdays from 3-6pm)
• use of instruments, private recording booth, art supplies, storage space, other center resources
• once-monthly one-on-one academic, college and future counseling, including academic planning, discussions/exploration of possible career direction guidance for the college search, support working through the application process
• required weekly discussion attendance

Examples of possible future supplemental programs to be offered by The Purple Crayon

• Apprenticeship opportunities
• Performance/exhibition opportunities
• Essay-writing seminars/workshops

Intended Program Outcomes

• Increased self-awareness
• Increased creative expression and/or participation
• Higher rates of personal satisfaction and self-esteem
• Improved achievement of personal goals
• Decreased loneliness, depression, and anxiety
• Increased engagement in school and extracurricular activities
• Successful matches of students to appropriate post-secondary settings
• Increased rates of undergraduate matriculation for program alumni

What Draw Your Future is:

• An after school college and career preparation program rooted in the development of self-direction, self-knowledge, and personal responsibility.
• A place for 7th through 12th graders to become part of an active, thoughtful, and creative community
• A way for middle and high schoolers to learn more about themselves outside of the school and home contexts while still under the supervision of knowledgeable adult staff, advisors, and mentors

What your child will get:

• Careful guidance to identify his or her skills and passions and work toward a satisfying and fulfilling life path
• One-on-one support through the college selection process when appropriate
• Support for personal interests and projects, and the opportunities for apprenticeships and mentoring where appropriate
• Once-monthly academic/college/career counseling as appropriate by grade and individual situation

What Draw Your Future is not:

• Unsupervised
• Academic
• A traditional “college prep” or “arts education” program